A full day, in more senses than one, with 41 people at Beth Tephillah today for our Generational Healing seminar. Our publicity says “places are limited”, so the 5 who left it to this morning were fortunate that 4 who had booked were late cancellations.

It was cosy, but the buzz developing through the day indicated the good atmosphere we enjoyed together. Lots of interesting comments and questions as we explored our part in bringing healing to the unresolved sin issues in our family history. The use of genograms as a tool to identify patterns through the generations was new to some, and for some, just looking at their family tree brought understanding of issues they face, and why their life has not gone well.

In preparing the teaching, I was again struck by the immensity of God’s grace that the blessings of obedience to His ways is to a thousand generations of those who love Him, while the consequence of disobedience is generally limited to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him. (Exodus 20:4). Also, as the Sandfords put it so well, “Wherever men will let Jesus Christ reap the dire effects of the law through forgiveness and atonement on the cross, God can prevent tragedy. (God) has set Himself to obey His own laws. So whenever men will not repent, and by that fail to give Him access, men must reap, generation to generation, whatever is sown, however unfair that may be to the unborn and however much our loving God doesn’t want that to happen.” (John and Paula Sandford, Transforming the Inner Man: God’s Powerful Principles for Inner Healing and Lasting Life Change, p. 188-189).

So we see that the atoning death of Christ is always effective for personal sin, and when applied to corporate sin, is equally effective to bring healing to generational lines. How wonderful is the blood of Jesus to deal with all sin and bring us into all the freedom of the children of God.

Hearing some of the family inheritances that people have, makes me very grateful for my own heritage, and full of admiration for those, who in spite of the generational iniquity have, by their commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, brought blessing to their family line.

As Mal concluded today, “If done well, dealing with generational iniquity not only brings a great amount of healing to the person receiving ministry, but also to their children, and often also sideways to other members of their family.” We trust that for the families represented at Beth Tephillah today, this will prove true.

By the way, we’ve changed the date of the 4th seminar, on dissociation, to 24th November. Places are being booked much earlier for this than for our other seminars, so we expect another “full” day in November.

We met Charles Kraft back in 1995 and warmed to his style of ministry. When the Prayer Ministries Network invited him to conduct a Deep Healing seminar in 2001 Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre staff were heavily involved. In 2003 Beth Tephillah Ministries arranged a series of seminars on deep healing, spiritual warfare and leadership.

It is great that the Restoration conference 2007 gave us the opportunity to hear him expand more fully on the Authority we have as believers in Jesus Christ. Well done to the Restoration team and Australia for Christ Fellowship for their hard work. We connected with a lot of people and it is exciting to hear of more people being trained and equipped to minister healing and deliverance.

Dr. Kraft taught from his book, I Give You Authority. Chuck’s story, his humour, and years of experience encouraged us all to deal with sin issues that give the devil a foothold, to “have a go”, and to exercise our authority in Jesus in all areas of life. As believers, our name is added to the credit card the Father gives to his children.

We are glad Meg was with him again this time. Since her last visit to Melbourne in 2003 she has published Frontline Women: Negotiating Crosscultural Issues in Ministry. With her husband, Marguerite Kraft has taught generations of students at Fuller Seminary. Now retired, she is enjoying a quieter pace in between travelling with Chuck. We heard from him how his authority in Christ extended protective covering for his wife, children and grand-children.

Intimacy with God is a huge topic and we felt we were just scratching the surface. The old books by mystics like Madame Guyon, St John of the Cross and Brother Lawrence have been joined by the current rush on the topic: John Bevere, Mike Bickle, Jim Goll, Tommy Tenney and Gary Oates and so many others have shown the deep hunger for more of God than so often we experience in our Christian lives.

We realise that time is a major factor in developing intimacy in any relationship. The more we spend time with someone, through the ordinary, as well as the special, events of life, the better we get to know them. Part of the Wikipedia definition of intimacy describes the intimacy shared by members of the Godhead: Intimacy is linked with feelings of closeness, safety, trust and
transparency among partners in a collaborative relationship.” We are invited to join the Father, Son and Spirit in their relationship and share with others in the oneness in the body of Christ.

We explored the Why, the How and Obstacles to Intimacy with God and discovered helpful ways to grow in intimacy. How our God longs for us to draw near so that he can draw near to us.

It’s hard to believe the Hearing God’s Voice seminar is just a memory now. We had a great day and God spoke to each person, even the most timid and unsure. One of the exercises involved several participants praying together for someone they didn’t know anything about – they just had a name – and writing down everything they felt God spoke about the person. We knew the 4 people being prayed for and the sheet for each person was wonderfully accurate and encouraging. God does speak and we can hear him when we’re listening.

We’re preparing now for the seminar on 14th July – Intimacy with God. Just today some friends were speaking about our relationship with Jesus and how different it seems to be to relationships with flesh and blood humans. When Jesus said we would know God, I’m sure he meant it, so there’s much to explore in a growing relationship with God.

“Hear the Word of the Lord” has been a common instruction to God’s people through the centuries. Jesus, who IS that Word, told us that sheep listen for their shepherd’s voice and follow him because they know his voice, and He expects His sheep to respond to His voice.

This seminar aims to help participants hear, identify, understand and obey the voice of Father God.

Cost: $25.00. There will be practical sessions. Refreshments will be provided. BYO lunch.

Please advise Malcolm or Diana Dow you are coming as places are limited.

This blog will be used to announce happenings at Williamstown Baptist Church and Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre, and for general discussion of topics of interest to the church and ministry centre staff.